All season tire options?

[qingcong]

It seems like every tire thread is about summer tires. Well, I want all seasons so that I can drive the car in the colder months. I figured I'd start with the tire first and then work backwards to what wheels might work with the tires. Keep in mind my NSX is a 91.

On the 96 wheels there are plenty of quality all season options for the rears, but for the fronts you have to go to a non-OEM size to get any all season sizes. OEM is 215/45/16. If you drop down to 205/45/16 you open up some all season options to match the rears, but not sure if that size will trigger any warnings.

Does anyone have a successful 16/17, 17/17, or 17/18 all season tire combo?

 

[qingcong]

Doing some of my own research on the matter, it seems the most important bit is that the ratio between rear and front needs to be within 5% of the stock tire ratio.

On the stock 91 tires, 225/50/16 & 205/50/15, ratio = 24.9/23.1 = 1.078, so I need something between 1.028 and 1.128.

Stock 96 tires are 245/40/17 & 215/45/16, ratio = 24.7/23.6 = 1.0466. There are no all seasons available for the fronts in this size.
If I move down to 205/45/16 for the fronts, ratio = 24.7/23.3 = 1.06, it opens up the following ultra high performance matches with rears:
Continental DWS06
BFGOODRICH G-FORCE COMP-2 A/S
GENERAL G-MAX AS-05
Riken Raptor ZR A/S


Since the 2002+ wheels don't fit on the 91, I didn't look at those, but I did look at the SoS 02 clones. They suggest 255/40/17 & 215/40/17, which results in a ratio = 25/23.8 = 1.05.
There are no all seasons available for the fronts in that size, but if you go down to 205/40/17, ratio = 25/23.5 = 1.064, it opens up the following matches with rears:
Kumho Ecsta PA51
Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+, the caveat here is that the speed ratings will be mismatched. The fronts are only available with a "V" rating while the rears are "Y".

The other issue with this is that going to a 205 width tire for the SOS 02 clones is that it is at the minimum end of the recommended tire width for a 7.5" wide wheel.

 

[mwagner10702]

I briefly had the 205/45R16 on my 1994 (with factory 16/17 alloys) before switching to 17/18 wheels. No issues that I can recall with the 205/45R16 on the front.

 

[Honcho]

It seems like every tire thread is about summer tires. Well, I want all seasons so that I can drive the car in the colder months. I figured I'd start with the tire first and then work backwards to what wheels might work with the tires. Keep in mind my NSX is a 91.

On the 96 wheels there are plenty of quality all season options for the rears, but for the fronts you have to go to a non-OEM size to get any all season sizes. OEM is 215/45/16. If you drop down to 205/45/16 you open up some all season options to match the rears, but not sure if that size will trigger any warnings.

Does anyone have a successful 16/17, 17/17, or 17/18 all season tire combo?

A lot of the UHP class tires will work in the cold. I ran Yokohama s.Drives in the 02+ sizes for years. They worked fine in temps all the way down to 20 F and below. Obviously, they don't have any snow traction, but here in Colorado the roads are mostly dry in the winter. With the Max and Extreme class tires, the rubber compound tends to be too soft to handle cold temps below 45 F. I think Yokohama's current UHP entry is the Advan Fleva. Worth a look, if you have no need for snow traction.